The Kerala High Court, on Thursday, February 6, admitted the appeal of Greeshma, the prime accused in the murder of 23-year-old Sharon Raj, who was awarded capital punishment by a lower court. The court also suspended the sentence of her maternal uncle Nirmala Kumaran Nair, who was convicted to three years of imprisonment. A division bench of Justices PB Suresh Kumar and Jobin Sebastian directed the state of Kerala to file a response on the petition challenging Greeshma and Nirmala Kumaran’s conviction and sentence, as well as on her petition seeking suspension of the death sentence.
The Neyyattinkara Additional Sessions Court, which convicted Greeshma, awarded her capital punishment. Nirmala Kumaran was given imprisonment of three years. However, Greeshma’s mother Sindhu, who was arraigned as co-accused, was acquitted.
The lower court, while imposing a death penalty, referred to the murder as “extremely brutal, gruesome, diabolical, and revolting.” Further, the court also classified it as one of the “rarest of rare” cases.
In her appeal plea, Greeshma argued that the judgement and the sentence are “against facts, evidence, and law”. Further, the plea also stated that the case was highly sensationalised and there was a “vilification campaign” against her, and that the accused did not get a fair trial.
“It is submitted that right from the day of the start of the investigation, the entire case assumed sensation, and there was a clear vilification campaign to find the accused guilty and sentence her to death. Under the circumstances, there is reason to hold that the court below was pressured to a certain extent to find the accused guilty and sentence her to death. The accused do not get a fair trial,” the petition read.
Greeshma, in her plea, contended that there was no scientific evidence to prove that Sharon died because of poisoning. “The sample of the blood and tissue of the deceased did not show any trace of the poison. The post-mortem also did not specify that the poison was the cause of the death. The chemical certificate also did not establish that death was by poison.”
Further, stating that there was nothing in the case to consider it as a
“rarest of rare case”, she submitted that the death sentence was passed without studying the factors that are available for a lesser sentence.
The plea said the lower court awarded the death sentence to a 25-year-old woman without any criminal antecedents, after being influenced by the media sensation. This violated the right to life of the convict guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, it said.
The court admitted the plea and sought the response of the government in the matter.
Greeshma and Sharon were in a relationship, but by 2022, Greeshma wanted to end it. Sharon, however, was allegedly unwilling to accept the breakup. Greeshma later confessed to the police that she had mixed poison in kashayam (an ayurvedic concoction), which she gave Sharon to drink. He died on October 25 from cardiac arrest, caused by organ failure.
In his verdict, Neyyattinkara Additional Sessions Court Judge AM Basheer praised the police for conducting a “brilliant investigation” with the help of digital and forensic evidence. The verdict also made repeated references to the sexual nature of the relationship between Greeshma and Sharon.
